"STOP!"Everybody stopped. Isn't leading fun sometimes?"It's getting dark, it's not safe to keep going tonight."Everybody complained, they left the Convent thinking they'd be back within the day and sleep in warm beds tonight, and even though they saw how little time there was left before dark, they tried to argue a way out. To me of course, as if I could rewind the sun. Isn't leading fun sometimes? Well, I'm not commanding a highly disciplined elite force, but they have common sense so they eventually stopped whining. Larry pointed at a house's roof and winked at me. I looked at him suspiciously and he just kept smiling annoyingly. I looked at the roof. Nothing special there... none of these surprise zombies that climb and run and pop out of nowhere when you don't expect them. No one painted a dirty word on the shingles, nothing valuable lay there... nothing Larry could find so amusing. He eventually raised his arms and scoffed: "I thought you were the smart guy here! That house has a chimney. We'll easily find wood around here. If we start a fire now the dampness will be gone by the time we're ready to sleep!"Hey, looks like rednecks know redneck things! I had been looking at the doors and windows to make sure zombies couldn't just walk in, but making a shithole less shitty had never been part of my life.We proceeded to inspect the house for zombies or other hazards, but found none. Setting the place up and lighting a fire in the fireplace didn't take long, and we were numerous enough for turns of guard not to feel like eternity. Little to say about the evening. We talked and played cards until we got sleepy, and Francine is the one who ordered us to sleep. Is it me or women have a sense for this kind of things? Anyway she was right and we quickly went to the bunches of sheets and towels we called bed.I slept well, deeply enough to be a little confused when I was awaken for my turn. One little hour, only work to do is not fall asleep and look out for suspicious sounds. I played Solitaire and nothing happened. I won most of the time if anyone wants to know. Put more wood in the fire, awoke the next guy, went back to sleep, woke up the next day, figured out that the instant coffee we found was still good and heated some of our water over the fire and enjoyed a delicious cup. The technician insisted to take the jar, there weren't any in his base and he missed it. Good for him.I moved to the garage and inspected the carriage. As if someone would touch... Well I'll be damned! The garage had a regular door on the side which someone could use without making much noise, and our carriage wasn't exactly equiped against theft. Two guns were missing, almost all the ammunition and most of the fresh food, though none of the cans, which were easy to find around here. I estimated the total was about all a single person could carry in a single trip. Our thief didn't dare come twice. Maybe he lived nearby, but maybe he followed us for a while and was already far.

1- Follow the original plan: take the technician home and get our doctor back. We can do it with what we have left, we could do it with even less.2- Go back and get more ammo, if we have to fight the other community we're not properly armed and I don't want to dismiss this possibility.3- Go after the thief. We may not find him, but our things are ours and we should take some time to find them.4- [thank you Cass] We can follow the original plan with a man or two less... they'll try to locate the thief while we visit the other community and meet at the house on the way back.

I picked Samuel, who was used to patrol on his own - not that our community required it, he apparently liked it - and was the best at guessing where to expect zombies, and Joe, a man of more average skills but who knew enough to keep up. Together, they'd be fine."Don't take any risks, I said. We'll meet in the house after we made the exchange, that won't be in a lot of time, so you only have a few hours, don't go too far. You're more valuable than two guns and a basket of potatoes, don't attack or treathen whomever that is, if you find them. If we're back before you, we'll light a fire so you'll see the smoke."The rest of the way was easy enough, and short. The other community lived in a city hall, it wasn't protected by a wall like ours, but its parking offered a large open area to see threats coming. They somewhat gardened in the formerly grassy parts, but vegetables didn't thrive in the sand the grass was doing fine in. The cars they pushed out of the parking lot formed a kind of barrier, but nothing impenetrable, even to slow zombies. The passages were, however, just a little too narrow for our carriage. I pondered leaving it behind, but eventually decided against it: we came armed because we're ready to use force if needed, we might as well demonstrate it. Not in a threatening way though, the explosives will stay quietly in the trunk thank you. I told the others to join me and we pushed a car a little further and... now we had enough room to go! I waved at the building, not doubting that we were being watched, and waited at the main door for someone to open.I wasn't pleased by the technician jumping off the carriage and running to meet up with his friend. If we were to fight, we wouldn't have him as human shield now. But what could I say at this point? And our doctor was nowhere to be seen. Of course, if he was busy, he wouldn't have run to the door, he's too professional to leave a job half done! I was alarmed, however, when I asked where he was and the man began to fidget. If there was any ploy to abduct him, the technician wasn't in to it, he looked perfectly clueless.The man eventually said that the doctor was operating on someone, but I highly doubted it. He wasn't a surgeon, he could manage simple operations when there were no other options, but when it was not absolutely necessary he considered it too risky. I'm sure this was a lie. He offered us to wait inside, which could easily be a trap. Another thing our doctor isn't is an adventurer. If we were killed, he wouldn't find his way back home alone and effectively be trapped there forever, or until the Convent sent other people to get him.

1- Give him some time, I'm sure the operation thing is a lie but maybe the doctor is having sex or something else that is private but harmless.2- Follow him inside, but then draw our guns and walk in until we find the doctor.3- Kill him, the technician and anyone that show themselves until we find our man.4- Take him hostage and ask for the doctor to be released.5- Leave and come back later for a surprise attack.